the idea of step-up planes, IMO, doesn't really apply anymore. The steps are too big.

in the old days, primary in a C150, IFR in a C172, then buy a 210 and self-transition to it with maybe an hour for a high performance sign-off. Get a 310 and do 15 hours in it with the local CFI/MEI. Stepping up within the brand was both desirable and practical.

these days it's different. Many people buy a cirrus, train in it from scratch or after very few hours in a rental, and then that cirrus is all the plane they need or want. The step-up desire is fulfilled by new avionics, not by a new airplane.

if they do want to step up then they step way up, which means several weeks of school for turbine equipment. It doesn't so much matter what you had before going to that school.

I don't know, I see a lot of guys buying Cirrus or TTx to build their total time so they can fly something bigger. It just seems that the piston twin step is getting skipped.

In fact I have a friend that is flying the stink out of a TTx to build total time.

The number one reason Cessna couldn't sell the "Lancair Columbia 400" was Cessna. They lost the sex appeal. Lancair was a sexy name and a sexy airplane. It was pre "China" which was actually Malaysia... but I digress. And it was pre-Mexico.

I was around the dealers who had a two year backlog back then, they looked down on Cirrus as an inferior product. We joked about the chute.

Maybe the chute is it, but I don't think so, I think it was the bank account and if Lancair had the backing without going to Maylasia to get it, you'd probably have a very different picture of that market today. I think Cirrus and Lancair would be battling it out and everyone would be better for it.

I hope someone buys the right to build the 400 and the rights to call it a Lancair and kicks some serious butt!

I don't think it would be very easy to just add a chute to an airframe without some serious structural modifications, especially around the upper cabin. For the high wing Cessnas, that structure was already mostly there at the wing attach fittings. For the TTX it's not. Gotta support the weight of the aircraft, plus the shock of the chute opening at 150+ kts.

I'm a huge fan of the 400/TTX. At the risk of sounding stupid...

It seems rather trivial to me that the a strap could be laminated onto the surface of the airplane with a single layer of composite in a way that would not weaken the structure of the plane. That may be completely incorrect and I know there are people around here that tell me I'm wrong.

Still... the bigger issue in my mind is the stall speed of the airplane which doesn't leave much room for the gross weight of the plane to increase accommodating the weight of the chute in an airplane that already is at a disadvantage compared to the competition. It seems like a very significant effort to reengineer the structure of the airplane to reduce the empty weight of the airplane, including a parachute, and leave enough useful load that it would be competitive to the G6.

Building time is an old wives tale.

Learn to fly the plane you want to fly. Flying a TTX does not make flying a jet easier. Flying jets makes you better at flying jets.

I would love to see this break-through design incorporated into the Corvalis by whoever might be able to pick up the TC from Textron:

https://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/expe ... -live-hype

That fixes a lot of the shortcomings of the design without sacrificing safety.

The advice I was given was "Buy your last airplane first" rather than do the step-thing, it seemed like good advice.

So naturally I said, time to buy an Aerostar 700/702 (with an interested partner)!

Talked to insurance broker who shopped it... and with what (little) came back across all providers who responded (not just in cost, but in 100 hrs dual required with someone who has more than 1,000 hours IN TYPE), I might as well have bought something turbine powered (acquisition and running costs aside)...

I'm low time multi/instrument so that is part of it, but apparently until you hit 1,500 of *multi* time the terms would not have changed that much for the A*.

I even mentioned to the broker that Adam used to fly one solo no instrument ticket (!) for a good while, and the broker responded that he "must have been self-insuring" early on

Perhaps it's just death-star specific as I received sort-of reasonable quotes for a Baron 58.

Anyway I digress and don't mean to make this an A* insurance hijack, but that is my experience with trying to "jump the line" in terms time in the book. Certainly not impossible to make a big jump, but onerous in terms of cost and hassle from an insurance perspective if you are not fitting in the box yet... especially in the pressurized piston twin segment.

I really feel like I need to go get a good amount of time in a TTx now, something about them not being made anymore triggers a weird response in me like that.

I went from C182 to Merlin IIIC. Apart from not knowing what I was doing it was a perfectly logical step.

That may be true, but people aren't soloing in a 172 then finishing their private in a mustang. You need something for hours 20-200. The TTX was a decent option.

I had liability only. It was shockingly cheap at only $1300/year. But I had close to 400hrs of multi time when I bought the Aerostar, not sure if that made any difference (prob not). Seems to me that with liability they don't care very much either way. Could you not go down that route first year if you own outright?

On the Turbo Commander it's $5K/year, but that's with hull.

That's what we were thinking, just doing liability and rolling the dice for the first year (after doing 25 hrs of transition with an expert) while we built time, then going to full coverage year 2.

We were quoted $14,000 a year for year 1 for full coverage on a $350,000 hull (700/702) with all the restrictions I previously mentioned...

My prospective partner and I had a frank discussion about the possibility of some freak accident (my mind went straight to "gear wouldn't come down"), and having to make the call to the other partner saying they just burnt up $175,000+ of their money in such a situation, and we both decided to hold off

BTW I really enjoy following your adventures on youtube and on the forums! I saw a 680V down at KCRQ late last year and thought of you when he fired those TPEs up. The sound is almost worth going deaf for

I think Mark Huffstetler; current owner of Lancair, should buy the rights of the TTX for pennies and repatriate the design with the experimental Lancairs such as the Mako and Legacy.

Restore the name Lancair Columbia 350 and Columbia 400. Sell them as boutique, bespoke, hand built machines that are custom built to order. The Lancair name is associated with sexiness, speed and power and unfortunately the connotation of a little danger. The certified Lancair brand put a sport coat on the experimentals with the FAA's blessing that "hey, this thing isn't a scary homebuilt" anymore. That's what their competitive advantage could be over a Cirrus and that's what was lost with the renaming fiasco and purchase and subsequent marketing by Cirrus.

I've made this comment every time this type of discussion starts...

Forget the magazine articles and specs, fly a TTX and a NEW SR22T and it will be obvious why the TTX is going out of production (yes, I've done it several times with different versions).

Part of Cirrus' sales and marketing is LISTENING to customers. Useful load was a problem along with only 4 seatbelts for families with 3 small children. They fixed it along with most all of the other complaints of the earlier models, while Cessna could care less what piston customers want.

I am not just stating my general opinion about Cessna, I have bought two NEW restart Cessna's a 182 and a 206 and long term leased another 182 and a second 206. I've been to the factory, know both my local dealers well, been to Osh and talked to every Cessna rep I could find, etc. You know how many times I've heard from Cessna on any topic? ..... ZERO! I don't care what business you're in, if you don't care about customers you will fail.

BTW- I've almost bought a new G36 several times and you know how much follow up I got.... Zero. Doesn't give me much hope for the G36 either.

This is probably true with those who self insure, but for everyone else the insurance company still makes you build time!

Any business that operates thinking customers will fall over themselves to chase their product is indeed doomed. Alex - great post, depressing to read as it is. Very insightful.